The Candle in the Darkness
by The17thScripter
Summary: A second chance, A chance at revenge, Thrills, and a chance to fly...come read about the beginnings of Team CNDL, the adventures they get wrapped up in, and how the world's fate might just end up in their hands. This is gonna be a bit of an OC centric story with regular appearances by the main cast.
1. Chapter 1: Beginnings

**[A/N]**

** So I had this idea floating around my head, thought I****'d write it down and see where it goes, feel free to favorite, follow, and review. Oh and I don't own RWBY by the way, it belongs to RoosterTeeth and Monty Oum.**

** -The17thScripter**

**Chapter 1: Beginnings**

Weiss Schnee swung her sword around, only to find it clash the two swords her opponent wielded. Gritting her teeth, she retreated a few steps and summoned one of her glyphs, dashing forward in a flurry of ice crystals. But the faunus girl before her sidestepped it like it was nothing. Slightly frustrated she tried again and again to land a hit on her opponent, sorting through a variety of glyphs and elemental types, only to fail to land her attack each time.

Retreating a few steps once more, panting slightly, she glanced briefly at her scroll, noting her Aura level in the low yellow. She decided to go for a ranged attack, but just as she was about to fire off the flurry, her opponent seamed to disappear. She hesitated, glancing around confused. The sound of blades swishing through the air caught her attention, she whirled and managed to have enough time to bring up Myrtenaster in a defensive position, but the force from the strike sent her flying. Right into the wall of the sparring area.

[-]

"And that's the match." Professor Goodwitch announced, stepping into the middle of the arena. "Ms. Schnee's Aura level has dropped into the red, signifying the end of the match, and I must say, that is one of the longest matches we've had in quite some time." Professor Goodwitch commented, "Ms. Hunter, you've very good Aura management, you should have no problems getting into the upcoming tournament."

"Thank You Professor." The faunus replied, sheathing her swords and standing in an attentive pose.

"Weiss!" A figure clad in a red cloak dashed to the fallen heiresses side in a flurry of rose petals. The heiress groaned and winced as she stood up, aided by her comrade. She looked over at her opponent, who sheathed her two swords. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine Ruby." Weiss watched as the faunus exited the arena before wincing again at the ache in her side. Yang Xiao Long, one of the two other members of team RWBY showed up soon after to assist her sister in helping the heiress to their teams dorm.

[-]

Carly Hunter walked out of the training area, stretching a bit. With a slight smile on her face, the young wolf faunus began to make her way to the dorms. Only a few minutes at her relaxed pace and she arrived at the main area between the academic buildings and the dorms. A sudden movement in her peripheral vision caught her attention. Opting to pretend not to notice, she continued her course, entering the dorms and going to her room, which she shared only with one other girl for the moment, neither of them actually having a team yet due to their late transfer into Beacon.

Whatever or whoever had been following her had stopped for the meantime, satisfied with this, she locked the door and walked into the small bathroom attached to the room. She quickly stripped down and turned on the shower, stepping in and letting the warm water run over her, shivering a little as the water ran over her wolf ears. The fight with the Schnee heiress had been a bit more taxing then she let on in class, and she was happy to have the chance to relax under the hot water of the shower.

What bothered her was whoever had decided to follow her out of class, she'd have to figure that out, and fast, she didn't need a stalker at this school.

[-]

Weiss laid down in her bed with a groan, the ache from the hit had spread to her entire body at this point. Ruby frowned at the pained expression on her face. "Weiss, you sure you don't want to go to the nurse? You look like you're in a lot of pain."

Weiss shook her head "No, I'm fine, just need a bit of rest and I'll be back to normal." Yang rolled her eyes at her stubbornness.

"Whatever, I'm gonna go find Blake, later." And with that, the blonde brawler exited the room.

"Well…if you need anything, just call on your scroll, okay? I'm gonna go the cafeteria." The heiress nodded and watched as Ruby walked out of the room. Her mind drifted to the woman who put her in this predicament, she was new, a transfer, though where she transferred from seemed to be a mystery to just about everybody. Sighing, Weiss shut her eyes and tried to let sleep embrace her, eager to escape the ache and pain from the fight.

[-]

An explosion rocked the building as she jumped out the top window, using her semblance to land safely on the ground. Standing up and bolting forward into an all out sprint. Just as she did so, two Paladin mech suits burst through the wall of the aforementioned building, both sporting a White Fang logo. She flicked open her parasol behind her just in time to block another missile attack, she activated her semblance once more, disappearing and reappearing a few feet ahead.

She continued running, she had to run, she heard the guns firing, the ground exploded underneath her feet, sending her flying into a nearby wall, headfirst. As she slumped to the ground, she blinked, her iris flashing white as she desperately tried to cling to consciousness. Through blurry vision, the last thing she would remember seeing was a brown figure take up a defensive position in front of her, holding a mini gun. She heard shouting, it sounded female, she could feel herself being picked up and then carried away at a fast pace, white eyes glancing at her before the blackness of unconsciousness finally overtook her.

[-]

Coco unloaded round after round into the Paladin's leg, drawing the attention away from the tri-color girl losing consciousness on the ground behind her. "Velvet, Fox! Go get her and take her back to Beacon." She shouted at her team mates as she continued firing. Fox and Velvet bolted to the girl, Fox scooping her up before the two bolted as fast as they could for Beacon.

The remainder of Team CFVY made short work of the remaining White Fang members. Coco looked at their handiwork and spat to the side. "Wasn't that the girl Team RWBY warned about?" Yatsuhashi commented.

"Looked like it, hope she's alive, got to many damn questions for her to answer." Was her response as she collapsed her mini gun back into its hand bag form. Turning from the scene and starting the walk back to the school.

[-]

Professor Ozpin stood in the hospital room and analyzed the young girl now laying in the bed before him while the attending nurse checking her vitals. He turned to Velvet; "You're sure it was the White Fang that was pursuing her?"

Velvet nodded. "Yes sir, it was definitely the White Fang logo on the side of those mech suits." She looked at the girl, "Sir, if what Team RWBY said was true, isn't she technically suppose to be with the White Fang?"

Ozpin 'hmmed' to himself; "It seems that may have changed, I suspect we will learn more once she awakes." He turned and walked out of the room, pulling out his own scroll and typing a new message, the recipient marked 'Qrow.' Velvet meanwhile took a seat in the hospital chair and looked over the girl before her, noting the odd, pink, white, and brown coloration of everything from her hair to her clothes.

"Sort of reminds me of Ice Cream." She commented to herself.

[-]

"Copy that tower, beginning descent stage and handing over control to ground crews." The pilot of the small aircraft said into his radio, watching as his flight controls changed from a green color to blue, signifying that he was no longer the one flying his plane. David leaned back in his pilot seat and sighed, watching as his craft gently glided around the school before approaching a small airfield reserved for student and civilian airships and the like.

Feeling the shift from forward flight to vertical mode over a landing pad, he felt a sigh of relief as the landing gear deployed and the air craft came to gentle stop on the ground, flicking the shutdown sequence of the engines, he opened the hatch to the cockpit and stepped out, glancing around the airfield, not many students had the luxury of personal access to an aircraft, much less the know how to pilot one.

Reaching the rear of the craft, he tapped on a holo graphic panel, and the cargo door opened, grabbing a backpack, he shut the cargo hold and began to walk towards the gate when he noticed someone standing in his way, with grey hair and green clothing. "Ah, hello Professor Ozpin, something I can help you with?"

Ozpin nodded; "Yes, I have something I need you to do for me…"

[-]

Liz threw open the door to her dorm room and made right for her bed, collapsing onto it with a loud groan. Her purple hair cascading over her back in a mess, her roommate looked over from her own bed, wolf ears perking up slightly. "Long day?"

Liz groaned again, switching to a sitting position on the bed. "You have no idea, late to first class, missed lunch, and Port doesn't know when to shut up." Carly shook her head and looked back to the book she held in her hands. "How about you? Heard some students grumbling about how you kicked that Schnee girl's ass in combat training today." Liz peered at her faunus roommate with interest.

Carly rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't say I kicked ass, just got a lucky hit or two is all." She commented, looking back to the magazine she had been reading before Liz had entered the room. Now it was Liz's turn to roll her eyes.

"Carly, you're to modest, you know that?"

"Uh huh…oh and I spoke with Goodwitch after class too." The wolf faunus slid off her bed, heading to a mini-fridge and grabbing a soda.

Liz sat up and looked at her roommate; "Oh? What about?"

Carly knocked back a swig from the bubbling caramel liquid, smiling slightly before responding, "Well, she wouldn't give me specifics, but she said that we'd be getting put on a team soon, no more of the freelancer bullshit."

"Its about damn time, was wondering when they'd get off their ass and get around to it…wonder who we're gonna get assigned too?" Liz mused, standing up and making her way towards the rooms bathroom, stripping off pieces of her black clothing as she did so.

"Beats me, I just can't wait until we start actually getting to go on missions, I'm itching to atually hunt Grimm, not just mess around with sparring matches."

[-]

Neo awoke with a start, trying to sit upright but gasping silently at the pain in her side, laying back down. Her eyes were white with panic as she scanned her environment, everything was a bit blurry and she blinked rapidly, attempting to get rid of said blur. Someone rushed over to horsed; "You're awake! Please don't try to move to much, you're injuries are still healing, but you're safe here."

Neo looked over to the voice, her vision clearing, looking the rabbit faunus up and down, tilting her head slightly. Blinking again, she took a more careful look around, noting she was in some sort of hospital room. She lifted her hands a bit and signed out: _Where am I?_

Now it was the faunus' turn to tilt her head to the side and look confused. "Uhm…what..uh…" At that moment the door to the room opened and two people entered. One with grey hair and green clothing, Neo recognized him right away as Ozpin, the headmaster at beacon, but she didn't recognize the individual behind him. Trying to sign again, she motioned: _Where am I? Whats going on?_

"P-p-professor! She's awake, but she keeps moving her hands around and she won't say anything…" The faunus stuttered, backing up slightly. Ozpin nodded and looked back to the other individual "Mr. Williams?"

The individual spoke up. "She's using sign language, she wants to know whats going on and where she is."

"Allow me to clear that up…" Ozpin looked at Neo; "Ms. Politan, you are currently in the medical ward at my school, Beacon Academy, and before you ask, I am fully aware of who you are and what roles you have played in the past, but what I'm curious to know is what happened that had you running from the White Fang."

Neo looked down for a moment before answering, her hands beginning to move rapidly. David spoke for her. "She says she got kicked out, one to many mistakes and since she was so close to Torchwick, she knew too much to simply let her go, the leader ordered that she be terminated, which is when she decided to run."

Ozpin rubbed his chin slightly. "I see…and that correlates to when Team CFVY found you, let me ask another question, what did you plan to do if you had succeeded in escaping on your own?"

David waited a moment, watching her hand movements. "She…didn't really have to much of a plan, hiding mostly, maybe whatever work she could manage in one of the other kingdoms." Ozpin nodded, almost as if that was what he was expecting.

"I see, now where did you learn to fight?"

More hand movements; "She says someone named Cinder trained her, as she wasn't allowed to participate in any of the combat schools."

Ozpin nodded once more; "I see, I now have one final question…or rather, a proposition for you, one that I do hope you accept."

Neo looked at him curiously, as did the other occupants of the room, what on earth was this man getting at?

"Would you like to attend my school and refine your skills?"

**A/N:**

** So? What****'d ya think? This will be infrequently update along with my other pics as I'm in college now, busy schedule and I want quality over quantity. Anyway, read, rate, review, favorite, and I shall see you all for the next chapter.**

** -The 17th Scripter**


	2. Chapter 2: Beginnings Part 2

**[A/N]**

** I don****'****t own RWBY, that****'****d be RoosterTeeth and Monty Oum**

** -The17thScripter**

**Chapter 2: Beginnings Part 2**

[-]

"Would you like to attend my school, and refine your skills?"

Neo blinked at the man before her, questioning in her mind whether or not he was serious. Wasn't she suppose to be the enemy? Wasn't she suppose to be a prisoner here? She blinked once more looked Ozpin up and down again, searching for any sign that this was perhaps some sort of joke, a cruel plan to get her to spill information she genuinely didn't know, for when it came down to it, she had merely been a grunt bodyguard for Torchwick, and grunts weren't told anything they didn't need to know.

Finding no physical evidence to support that theory, she replied in sign; _Are you sure? I mean__…__I__'__m suppose to be your enemy__…__you__'__d forgive that easily?_ As she waited for the man whose name she learned was David to translate for her, her gaze never left Ozpin, continuing to search for any sort of reaction that might indicate a falsehood or a bluff.

Ozpin chuckled at the girls confused expression, waiting for David to finish before he responded; "I believe in second chances, and based off of what you've told us, I think that you certainly deserve one." Neo thought to herself, a golden opportunity at a fresh start, staring her in the face, she wondered if she could ever atone for some of the wrongs she'd done during her time with Roman and the White Fang. But if this was her opportunity to start, she knew what she was going to do.

Her hands moved slowly, a little shaky. After all, when you're given the opportunity to start over and begin atoning for all your mistakes, who wouldn't take that kind of chance?

_I accept_.

[-]

Weiss groaned as she awoke. The scene would have been prefect; birds were singing, the sun shone brightly in the almost clear morning sky, and the smell of pancakes wafted from across the hall. All of this would have been perfect were it not for her leaders ear-piercing whistle that rudely interrupted the otherwise serene atmosphere. Making a note to eventually confiscate the wretched device when Ruby wasn't looking, she groaned, still finding herself a bit sore from the previous day's battle.

As Ruby busied herself with getting ready for the day's events in a blur of rose petals, a voice addressed the heiress from the other side of the room; "So Ice Queen, how ya feeling today?" Weiss glanced over to the owner of the voice that had addressed her, said voice's owner being the blonde barbarian Yang Xiao Long.

"I'm just fine, a bit of coffee and I shall be fit for the days activities." The heiress replied as she slid out of her bed, "And stop calling me that!" Weiss barked as she proceeded to make her way to the dorm's bathroom, eager to get at the shower. As she did so, Yang turned her attention to the other member of her team, Blake Belladonna sat on her bed, having already managed to shower, get dressed and begin reading one of her many novels before Ruby's wake up whistle had ended the bliss of sleep for the rest of the team.

Blake did not lift her gaze from her book; "Yes Yang?" she inquired, as if sensing the blonde's gaze.

"Did you learn anything about the newbie who kicked the Ice Queen's ass yesterday?" Yang asked, which earned a loud 'Hey!' from behind the closed bathroom door. Blake shook her head, still reading her book.

"Other than where she lives, she seemed to catch on to my presence rather quickly, so I didn't press further than her dorm building for fear of damaging any potential future meetings." She placed her bookmark inside the novel and closed it, setting the book on her bed. Turning her gaze to Yang, she continued; "However, I did make an interesting discovery over in the medical ward…"

[-]

Carly jogged through the school grounds, glancing at her watch occasionally to keep note of the time, it was still early enough that most students were either asleep or just now waking up, so she had most of the walk spaces to herself. Times like this were when she had the time to think to herself, letting her mind wander from topic to topic.

It was also at this time that David would begin his own morning routine, his first stop being one of the many small coffee shops on school grounds. Coffee, oh the sweet substance that allowed him to function this early. Without it, his body didn't function right, so he wasn't fully aware yet. As such, he didn't notice the jogging wolf faunus in the path he was crossing, he didn't think to quicken his pace, and he certainly didn't have time to react when they collided with each other with a crash.

David groaned, his head hurt from having collided with the concrete beneath him, as he blinked, trying to restore his vision he took note of a form crouched down next to him. "Hey…are you okay? I'm sorry I ran into you." came a feminine voice.

He sat up, or rather tried too, feeling woozy upon doing so. "I think so…just need to get up…" At that point the girl held out a hand, which he accepted, feeling a rather strong grip help pull him up off the ground. Dusting himself off, he turned to look at her, now taking note of her faunus features.

"I'm sorry about that…I wasn't paying attention and…" David waved a hand and shook his head.

"No no, its alright, I'm the one who should've been paying more attention." He blinked once more, his vision now completely clear. He offered a smile, "My name's David by the way."

[-]

Somebody was pounding on the door, drawing a now grumpy Liz to start her get out of bed. "Yeah yeah I'm coming." She called as she stumbled out of bed, glancing at the mirror to make sure she had enough clothing on, only to be interrupted by yet more pounding of fists on the door. Stomping her way over she threw the door open. "WHAT?!" She shouted angrily, only to lose any sort of anger upon seeing the two figures who stood there. "O-oh…Professor Goodwitch! I'm sorry …there…uh…something I can help you with?"

She felt herself shrinking under the glare she was receiving at the moment; "Yes there is Ms. Pierston, you and Ms. Hunter have a new roommate." With that, she stepped to the side slightly, turning and gesturing to the girl standing next to her with white, pink, and brown hair. "This is Ms. Neo Politan and she will be residing with you two until further notice." She then returned a short glare to Liz. "I'm sure you'll make her feel welcome, right?"

"Yes Ma'am" Liz squeaked. Neo moved her hands about with an apologetic look on her face. Liz simply moved to the side and gestured into the room.

"Well, come on in." Liz stated, waiting for Neo to come and Goodwitch to be down the hall before shutting the door with a sigh of relief. "Dust, she scares me." Liz looked over to Neo, who had sat down on one of the two empty beds in the room. "So…you're Neo, right?" Neo nodded. "So…is your stuff coming later?" Neo shook her head. "…Do you speak?" Another shake of the head, accompanied by some hand gestures. "Great…" Liz sighed a little; "Okay, so do you wanna grab a bite to eat? Maybe we will meet someone who understands sign while we're at it…"

[-]

Beacon's cafeteria was a constantly busy place, between the main meal rushes and students coming in on on schedules to grab a quick bite, there was always fresh food ready as fast as possible. The cafeteria also served as a meeting place for the many team's at Beacon. Neo and Liz had taken up a table towards the back of the cafeteria and were quietly munching on a tasty breakfast when David and Carly walked in.

Liz waved them over; "Hey Carly! Whose your friend?" She asked, motioning to the man her roommate had walked in with.

The faunus smiled; "Oh this is David, we kinda just…ran into each other." Her comment earning a chuckle from David. Carly looked at Neo; "Whose yours?"

Liz smiled, gesturing to the girl she was seated next to; "This is Neo, she's our new roommate according to Goodwitch." Neo gave a slight wave and smiled a little at David, who recognized her instantly. Through sign language he commented: _Its good to see you up and around, feeling better I take it?_

Neo nodded in response, she set down her fork to respond: _Yes I am, thank you for asking. David returned the_

Carly and Liz glance back and forth between each other awkwardly, watching the two sign back and forth before Liz clears her throat, drawing the attention of the two. "Uhm…what?" Liz asked.

"Sorry…you see I can read and speak sign language, which happens to be how Neo speaks." Neo nods her head at this. Carly continues to study the tri-color girl, proceeding to take her seat at the table with David following her lead. The group began to chat idly throughout the lunch break, mostly filling Neo in about the various aspects of life at Beacon.

[-]

Yang was furious, she couldn't believe what she heard, she just couldn't. How could the only person to beat her be at her own school, under protection! She punched another tree as team RWBY made their way to the school's cafeteria. "Yang…try and calm down…" Ruby spoke, trying to console her enraged older sister; "I'm sure there's a good reason for this, we can go to Ozpin's office after we eat, okay?"

"Fine." Yang grumbled, ceasing her efforts to punch the local flora into the ground, though her eyes remained red with anger. Ruby sighed, her sister would cool down eventually, she'd known that since she was little. She just hoped, perhaps optimistically, that nothing crazy would happen to set off the bombshell and that Ozpin would have an explanation.

Blake trailed slightly behind, her nose once again in one of her novels as they walked. She'd figured that the information of Neo's presence at the school would likely anger Yang to some degree, but she can't remember ever having seen the blonde brawler so utterly pissed before. If she had known that this would happen, she wouldn't have divulged her knowledge of Torchwick's henchman to Yang.

The group walked through the main entrance to the cafeteria and quickly got their meals, sitting down across from team JNPR as they did every other day. Yang made tore into her breakfast, drawing nervous looks from her friends. Jaune, being the caring leader of team JNPR, stood up and made his way over. "Uhm…Yang, are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Yang growled, earning a nervous laugh from the blonde boy.

"O-okay…I was just wondering cause you seem upset about something, so I was just wondering if you were okay, because my mom always says…well never mind…" Yang began shifting her gaze towards the boy to make some sort of comeback when something caught her eye, something consisting of three, distinct, colors. She stood up suddenly and pushed the boy out of the way, her hair starting to glow.

Many students began rapidly clearing out of the brawlers path, no one wishing to incur the wrath of Yang. The girl appeared to be conversing with a few other students, but Yang paid no attention to them. Stopping in front of the table in question, she pointed at the girl with pink, white, and brown hair.

"You!" Yang practically shouted, drawing the attention of those at the table. Red eyes met pink and brown. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

**[A/N]**

** Dramatic cliff hangar is dramatic, any who, review, favorite, follow, all that goodness. Also note that this will be on the infrequent side when it comes to updating because I****'****m in school and I don****'****t always have time or energy to write, but I****'****ll try not to forget about it.**

** -The17thScripter**


	3. Chapter 3: Intuition

**[A/N]**

** I do not own RWBY, it belongs to RoosterTeeth and Monty Oum.**

** -The17thScripter**

**Chapter 3: Intuition**

[-]

"What the fuck are you doing here?" The blonde woman before her shouted angrily. Neo blinked rapidly, quickly analyzing her before realizing who exactly it was standing in front of her. This was the same blonde she'd fought on the train a few weeks ago, a fight that Neo almost would've won had _She_ not shown up. Movement caught her eyes as Yang raised her right fist into an attack position; "Well? You gonna speak or not!" The brawler demanded angrily.

Neo lifted her hands in an attempt to respond when a rush of wind and a blur found her staring at Carly's backside, the wolf faunus had shoved her way in between the too, sending Yang sprawling backwards, she took a defensive stance with her teeth gritted tight. "Listen blondie, I don't know what kinda past you and Neo have," she growled, narrowing her eyes at Yang, who had recovered and now crouched in her own fighting stance. "…but if you're gonna hurt her, you're gonna have to get through me first."

Carly's ears twitched as footsteps approached the group, a stern, commanding, yet caring voice spoke; "That won't be necessary Ms. Hunter." Both Carly and Yang immediately relaxed slightly, still keeping a wary eye on the other as the one who addressed them walked up to the table. Professor Ozpin looked to Yang and the rest of team RWBY: "Ms Rose, could you and your teammates take Ms. Xiao Long back to your room? I think she is in need of some time to…cool off, which I believe might be in everyone's best interest."

[-]

The room reached of decay and musk, cold and damp concrete walls and floor. A lone figure sat on a chair in the center of the room under a flickering light bulb, the room's only light source. "Tsk, tsk, tsk…" A man sporting a bowler hat with a white coat walked into the room and up to the now struggling figure. "You, miss, were quite the hard one to find and catch, you know that?" The man lifted up his cain, flipping the hood off the figure, revealing purple and pink hair and a feminine face. The woman glared at the man, unable to speak thanks to a gag over her mouth.

The man leaned forward and chuckled; "Its a shame really, you're daughter was so valuable to us, to think she'd just run out like that…" He sighed, standing straight again, and heading for the door. "But every action ultimately has a cost, even when we don't know the price…"

[-]

Yang paced back and forth on her bed, her eyes, while having gone back to their normal violet color, still held an air of anger. Ruby nervously watched her sister pace back and forth. The four of the had gathered in their dorm under ed"Yang…I'm sure it will be fine…could you please sit down?"

Yang groaned as she kept pacing. "I just…what is going on?! Why would Ozpin let someone like her into Beacon. She's a known criminal, probably killed people before, it just doesn't…grah!" She yells, punching the closest wall, leaving a sizable dent and crack in the center.

Weiss glares at her. "Punching the walls won't help you big blonde ape!"

[-]

Liz watched as the man dressed in green sat at his desk before them, sipping from his coffee mug . The four of them had been ushered into his office after the incident in the cafeteria. "Carly Hunter, Elizabeth Silver, David Williams, and Neo Politan…you four have come here for various different reasons of which I know not all of them," Liz winced as she continued to watch Ozpin, she hated being called by her full name, it sounded snobby. Ozpin continued, rattling on about the values of the school and the importance of teams.

"…and so, keeping that in mind, from this day forward the four of you will be known as team CNDL, lead by Ms. Hunter. This also means that the final spot in your room will become occupied by Mr. Williams." Ozpin finished, taking another sip from his coffee mug.

[-]

It had been several hours since their meeting with Ozpin and a couple of them had finally gone to sleep for the night.

Liz lay stretched out on her bed as she usually did when she was settling down for the night. She took note of the sleeping Neo in her bed. She was about to go to her own bed when she took a second look at the tri-color girl, was she shivering? Neo's eyes were tightly shut, and she was definitely shivering, Liz glanced around, they were the only two in the room at the moment.

So she did what she figured anybody would do, she sat down gently on Neo's bed and laid a hand on her head in a comforting way…

She definitely didn't remember deciding to crawl under the covers…definitely didn't remember wrapping her arms around the girl and pulling her close…and most certainly not falling asleep like that.

**A/N**

** I know its short and stuff, but I've been busy with finals and school stuff, so plenty of time to update this summer!**

** -The17thScripter**


	4. Chapter 4: Emotion

[A/N]

I do not own RWBY, it belongs to RoosterTeeth

-The17thScripter

Chapter 4: Emotion

[-]

"…I see, so that's what all the fuss was about." The figure nodded, her black bow glinting in the moonlight as it twitched.

"Yang still isn't entirely okay with the idea I'm afraid, with Neo's attempt on her life and all." The cat faunus replied, her amber eyes seeming to glow slightly in the moonlight. "It took quite a bit of effort to get her calmed down."

Pausing for a moment, Carly looked out over the campus from their rooftop position. "…what are your thought's about her situation, Blake?" The faunus in question paused for a moment.

"Cautionary belief, I'm familiar with a bit of the White Fang methodology, so her story make's sense, but…" Blake sighed, glancing at her wrist watch. "…I don't know, its still a bit early to tell for sure if she's genuine or not, only time will tell. Anyway, I should be getting back before somebody wakes up and notices I'm gone, later." And with that, the cat faunus-in-disguise was gone.

Carly glanced at her own watch and let out a sigh, it was getting to be four in the morning, and with such a busy day ahead of her, she knew she should get some much needed rest. Silently sliding down the roof of the dorm, she nimbly climbed through the open window into her team's room. Upon doing so, she was greeted with the amusing sight of two of her team mates sound asleep, cuddling. Carly rolled her eyes, Liz could be quite the mother-figure sometimes.

What caught her attention, however, was the presence of David, or rather the lack there of. She glanced at her watch again; "Ah screw it…" she muttered under her breath and slipped out of the room. It had been mentioned multiple times that David was a pilot, so she had a pretty good guess as to his whereabouts.

[-]

David sat at one of the many work desks in the hangar. Before him lay a series of parts and tools, specifically the components of a stabilizer. "Burning the midnight oil?" A feminine voice softly said behind him. Turning his head to identify the voice, he shrugged. "Eh…well, couldn't sleep…figured I could get some work done." Turning back to his work bench, he continued the aforementioned work. "Whats got you up and about at this hour?"

Carly shrugged, "I don't sleep much…guess you could call it instinct." her wolf ears wiggling slightly, as if to emphasize the point. She walked closer to the work bench and peered over his shoulder. She watched as David expertly took apart and re-assembled the stabilizer, making some changes here and there before moving and re-installing the part on the nearby aircraft. "So…do you handle all of this yourself?" she asked, motioning to the entirety of the aforementioned aircraft.

"Yeah, guess you could say nobody else can really get things done the way I want 'em, you know?" David responded as he finished installing the part. Carly chuckled softly as she watched before glancing at her watch.

"Say…in about an hour, you want to grab breakfast?"

[-]

Liz was by no means unfamiliar with waking in somebody else's bed. Not that she slept around like a common whore or anything, she was simply what you'd call 'experienced.' However, said experience didn't always have an answer for various situations that one could call odd.

This particular situation she found herself in was a potentially embarrassing and delicate one. To begin with, she found herself in Neo's bed cuddling the aforementioned girl in a position that those unaware would find troubling if not lewd. Specifically, Neo had managed to snuggle herself directly in to and between Liz's breasts. Glancing at a clock on the nearby desk, Liz mentally groaned. _6:45 am, great, we__'__ve got class in an hour__…_

This mean't waking up the tri-color beauty between her breasts. Not that she minded having her there, _I suppose a few more minutes wouldn__'__t hurt_. Little did she realize just how awkward the trouble she was in for was, for just as Liz found herself closing her eyes, she felt Neo beginning to stir. _Peachy._

[-]

Carly sipped from her coffee and exhaled slowly. Having just finished their morning meal, the two of them sat and watched as students and professors alike awoke and got their own breakfast. "Lovebirds should be waking up soon." She comments idly, earning an odd look from David.

"Lovebirds?" He arched an eyebrow inquisitively, looking to the wolf faunus.

"You didn't see our fellow teammates this morning?" David shook his head; "Oh...well one way or another, those two wound up spooning it seems." Carly shrugged, taking another sip of her coffee.

"So cuddling...thats oddly adorable, and I imagine quite awkward considering they all just met yesterday." The pilot remarked, taking a sip of his own coffee, returning to watch as the school came to life.

[-]

Neo found herself slowly waking up. As she did so she clutched to the warmth next to her, not wanting to leave the wonderful bliss of sleep. Then her mind reminded her that there shouldn't be any sort of warmth next to her, nor should she be clutching it in the aforementioned attempt to cling to sleep. Her eyes snapped open to find...flesh?

Her face almost instantly flushing, she scrambled upright, blinking rapidly at the girl in her bed. Still a tad sleepy, she managed to sign: _What the?_

"I swear I can explain..." Liz started, now sitting up right, her face a tad flushed as well. Neo folded her arms and stared at her, waiting for said explantation. "Well...you see...you were shivering...trembling...and and and you...well..looked like you needed to be held." Liz swallowed a little, trying to read the girl for any sort of emotion."...So thats what I did."

[-]

Ozpin sat in his office, his eyes on a screen watching a video, brow furrowed. The file finished and he picked up a phone. "Glynda...please summon teams RWBY and CNDL to my office, immediately." He didn't wait for her to respond before putting the device down, as he replayed the video again, he cringed; bad news was never easy to deliver.

It wasn't long before the two teams stood before him, both sets of girl's with questioning looks on their faces. "I know you're all wondering why you're here, so I'll keep this brief. Earlier today we received what we believed was an anonymous message, however that turns out not to be the case." He motioned to an adjacent screen, the screen glowing to life as the video in question started playing.

[-]

_"__Helllooo? This thing on? Oh good.__" __an all to familiar voice to some begins as a figure steps back. The figure sporting a bowler hat, white coat, and orange hair. the room he was in seemed to be mostly empty, except for something odd but indistinguishable behind him._

"Torchwick…" Yang sneers, glaring at the video screen. Neo shifts about uneasily, something about this seemed very wrong.

_"__I hope you__'__re all having a wonderful day there at the lovely little school of yours.__" __Torchwick continues, offering up an almost poisonous fake grin. __"__I hate to be the barer of bad news to you kiddies, but you see, you have something of ours, and as much as it pains us, we__'__d really like it back.__"_

"Probably talking about Neo, don't make sense, didn't they kick her out?" David says, glancing at the aforementioned tri-color girl. Said girl continued to stare at the video screen, something still seemed off about this.

_"__Now you might be thinking to yourselves; __'__Why should I? What could you possibly have to want me to turn her over?__' __Well I__'__m so very glad you asked!__" __and with that the man sidesteps, revealing a tied up woman, with noticeably pink and purple hair, looking very ragged and beaten._

Neo gasped, loud enough for all to briefly glance at her with concern before the video continued, drawing their attention back to it.

_"__You see, this lovely lady is the mother of the thing we want back, and if we don__'__t get what we want, well__…" __Torchwick chuckled, a sick, twisted chuckle. __"__I__'__m afraid her life is forfeit, a shame really, because to add to the little prize, not only will her life be forefeit, but we__'__ll see to it that she won__'__t be the only one.__" __Torchwick grins at the camera again. __"__You have two days, ta ta!__"_

[-]

Neo stared at the screen as the video faded away, she was completely frozen, as were the others. Liz was the first to speak, slowly turning to the tricolor girl. "Neo…was that…actually?" Neo could only nod in response, her gaze still fixed on the now dark screen. A lone tear began trailing its way down her face.

Carly gritted her teeth, casting a quick glance at Neo, who was being wrapped up in a hug by Liz before looking back to Ozpin. "I assume you didn't show us this just to ruin our day, what's the plan?" The man nodded.

"You are correct in assuming there is a plan, Ms. Hunter, though I won't make anyone of you participate if you don't want to. This is a particularly delicate and volatile situation."

"Sir, the way I see it…" David begins, glancing around the room. "Well…I think I speak for all of us when I say that since we're teams, we're kinda like a family. And see'n as we're a family, we look out for each other." Ruby nodded and piped up, looking determined.

Ozpin smiled softly as one by one everyone in the room voiced their support for the plan, well, almost everyone. "And you, Ms. Xiao Long? Do you have anything you'd like to say?" All eyes turned to the blonde brawler, who had thus far remained rather quiet.

"I go with my team, while I do have some personal issue's that I have yet to resolve…" Yang looked at the floor. "…The loss of a mother is something that should never happen to anyone, no matter who they are or what they've done in the past." Neo looked over as Yang looked up again, their gaze meeting. "After all of this is said and done, I want a re-match of our fight from the train."

_Fair enough, and thank you. _Neo signed, Liz acting as translator. Ozpin nodded in confirmation.

"Alright then, lets get started…"

[-]

Yang walked ahead of the others as the group made their way out of Ozpin's office, most headed back to the dorms to continue individual planning and start gearing up. "Yang, wait up." Blake called from behind, quickly catching up to her partner and teammate.

"You need something, kitty?" The brawler asked, her tone clearly indicating she was not in the most talkative of moods.

"I'm just surprised…a day ago you wanted that girl's head on a pike, why the change of heart?" The feline faunus asked, careful to keep her tone low as they walked through the courtyard in front of the dorms.

Yang shook her head; "You should already know the answer to that one Blakey, and this doesn't mean I'm gonna start being all buddy buddy with her."

"Hence the rematch, I see." Blake nodded, neither one of them saying another word for the remainder of the journey back to their room. Blake mentally sighed, the next few days were going to be hectic, that much was certain. Their life never once seemed to have a moment of peace, she could only hope that one day that would change.

[-]

Carly sat on the rooftop, watching the moon slowly begin its journey across the night sky. Hearing footsteps behind her, she glanced over her shoulder to find David standing behind her. "Mind if I join you?" The pilot asked, holding two steaming mugs.

"Sure, what'cha got there?" She took a few sniff's as he got closer, her nose answering in time with his response.

"Hot chocolate, with the weather starting to get colder I figured you could use the added warmth." He replied, settling down next to her and handing her one of the mugs, which she promptly accepted.

"How'd you know I'd be up here?" She asked, taking a sip of the warm brown liquid, relishing in the warmth it brought.

"Little birdie told me."

"That birdie wouldn't happen to have a name, would she?"

"She would, Liz said you come up here all the time at night, so I figured you'd want some company." David replied, taking a sip from his own mug. Carly smiled softly, turning to look at the mechanic. She hadn't really looked at his features to much until now, his slightly boyish, yet handsome face, blue eyes, unkempt brown hair. "See something you like?"

Her mouth answered before her brain did. "You're eyes are pretty in the moonlight…" she cut herself off, snapping her gaze forward and praying he couldn't see the blush she could feel crawling onto her cheeks.

David chuckled; "Thanks, I appreciate the compliment." Just then a cold breeze picked up, causing the two of them to shiver.

Carly definitely didn't remember the cold breeze causing her to scoot closer to him.

She definitely didn't remember slowly starting to lean on him.

And she most certainly didn't remember falling asleep like that.

**A/N**

** Whew, I know its been awhile, but hopefully this makes up for the delay. With Volume 3 around the corner, expect more updates and plot twists as we get to see the exciting continuation of the RWBYverse!**

** -The17thScripter**


	5. Chapter 5: Storm

Chapter 5: Storm

[A/N]

I do not own RWBY, it belongs to RoosterTeeth

-the17thScripter

[-]

David glanced down at the sleeping faunus who now had her head in his lap. Smiling softly he looked out from their rooftop position. A quick glance at his watch showed the time to be around 2 in the morning, and the temperature continued to drop. He returned his gaze to the sleeping faunus on his lap. She was cute, he had no inner qualms about admitting that fact, her wolfish ears, the lump lower down which he could only assume was a tail of some sorts. _She__'__s kinda like a puppy, _he inwardly chuckled.

He let another half hour pass before he decided the temperature wasn't quite comfortable anymore. Gently scooping up Carly in his arms, he made his way back inside the dorm. Somehow she remained asleep during this, clutching his shirt and shivering slightly as a slight breeze picked up. Opting to use the roof access door as opposed to a window for his entrance back into the door.

After making his way back inside, he quietly slipped into their room and laid the sleeping faunus onto her bed. However, just as he began to pull away, he felt a tug on his shirt. looking back down at the person tugging at his shirt, his gaze was met with her green eyes. "Stay…." her voice quivering; "You're…warm…" David smiled, who was he to deny the ladies request?

Taking off his coat and his shirt, he crawled into bed next to her, where she quickly curled up close to him. Pulling the covers over them both, he wrapped his arms around her and settled down. As he slowly drifted off to sleep himself, he slowly started petting her notably soft hair without realizing it, earning an unseen smile from the wolf faunus.

[-]

Carly awoke to find the first few rays of light begin to pour in through the window and snuggled up close to a lovely source of warmth. Said source of warmth being a shirtless David, a very handsome shirtless David she noted as she took the moment to look over his figure. His muscles were well defined, with subtle abs. And the warmth, she snuggle just a little closer, the warmth was absolutely amazing.

It was another ten minutes before her warmth started to move, earning a growl. David chuckled; "Well good morning to you too."

Carly shook her head. "Warmth...stay..." David rolled his eyes, a light smile on his lips.

"Come on, today is not a day where we can sleep in." He said, rolling out of bed and standing up, earning another growl and a pout.

"Yeah, you're right." She grumbled, glancing to her watch and then back to David, who was looking at her. "...What?"

"You...uhm...uh..." She begins searching herself.

"What? What?" She was clothed, her hair was probably a little messy but she did just wake up, thats when she felt a breeze over a certain part of her, a part normally kept hidden. A glance over her shoulder and down confirmed her suspicion. "O-oh...that, uhm...must of slipped out during the night...hehe" She could feel the color coming to her cheeks as she reached behind her and began tucking it back away.

"Its fine, I just didn't realize you had one..." David offered a reassuring smile; "Why do you hide it? If you don't mind my asking."

"Well..." Carly started but found herself cut off from a loud yawn and a cough from a certain purple haired team member.

[-]

"Dust you two were noisy this morning." Liz complained as the four of them sat at breakfast. Liz's comment earning a few odd looks from members of RWBY and JNPR.

"I'm surprised, Liz, making such a comment without much room to talk yourself." Carly half responded, half growled; "I'd shudder to think what would happen if certain events involving two people I know were suddenly shared with the class." Liz and Neo both turned various shades of red, silencing any further complaints the former may have voiced.

David took another sip of coffee as he finished his own breakfast, standing up and picking up his tray. "Well, I need to get our ride ready, Liz, Neo, M'lady." And with that he left, smiling to himself as he deposited his tray and left the cafeteria.

"..."

"M'lady?"

"I said shut it!" Carly barked, a slight pink betraying her cheeks.

[-]

Blake watched the antics of their fellow team from her own team's table while nibbling on her eggs. Ruby and Weiss were eating their own breakfast, Weiss once again scolding their leader for her insanely large sugar intake. Yang was nowhere to be seen, which frustrated Blake. "Hey..." Ruby suddenly said, breaking the cat faunus' train of thought. "Where's Yang?"

"She's probably at the gym, you know she's been spending a lot of time there lately." Weiss comments, taking a bite of her toast. Ruby frowned, looking at the empty spot where her big sister normally sat.

"I'm gonna go check on her." Blake states, getting up and grabbing her tray, depositing it and making her way out of the cafeteria in the direction of the schools gym. Ruby continued her frown.

"I hope she's okay." The scythe wielder sighed, staring down at her cereal.

[-]

Blake entered the gym to watch a flaming punching bag go flying into the wall near the door, leaving a sizable dent before disintegrating into ash. On the other side of the gym stood the blonde brawler, hair aflame. "Just a little training I take it?"

"Not now kitty, not in the mood." Yang grumbles, grabbing another punching bag and mounting it on the ceiling.

"That dream again?" Blake persisted, stepping closer to her partner, watching as the brawler unleashed another series of punches.

"Said I don't want to talk about it, Blake." she said between punches, her aura flaring with each hit.

"And wasting your energy before we have an important mission is better than talking about it? Yang..." Blake reached out, resting her hand on the brawlers arm, stopping her punches for the moment. "Talk to me."

Yang grunted. "I don't get it, none of it makes any sense...Blake, that day on the train, I was dead to rights, I know it. That girl would have been my murderer, hell I'm almost certain I wouldn't have been the first person she's killed." Yang turned her back and picked up a water bottle, taking a quick swig. "Then the dream, which won't stop repeating itself...UGH!" Yang swings another aura punch, this one directly into the wall.

"You say someone or something that day stopped her from killing you, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Now that you have the ability, have you tried asking her?"

[-]

David sat in the cockpit of the airship as it sat in the hangar, running over a checklist when he heard a tapping behind him. Turning in his pilot seat to look at the visitor. "Oh, Neo, something I can do for you?"

_Just saying hi__…__Liz is giving Carly hell over your little stunt earlier. _David chuckled a little.

"I get the feeling those two have always been like that." He remarked, reaching for a nearby thermos and taking a sip from its contents. "Though I get the feeling you didn't come all the way out here to the hangar just to get away from a little argument, whats on your mind?"

Neo sighed, her shoulders slumping a little. _I don't know...with all that's happened lately, just a bit worried about today._

"Worried something will go wrong?" The pilot commented, climbing down from the cockpit to the main passenger area of the airship to join her.

_Yeah...what if..? _Neo didn't get to finish her though before she got wrapped up in a hug.

"Don't worry, okay? We're gonna get your Mom back. I don't know what all kinda past you've had with the White Fang, and quite frankly I don't care. We're a team, we look out for each other, its the least we can do." He held her like that for a few moments before continuing. "Now, you good?" A thumbs up and a nod as he released her answered his question. "Alright then, the others should be here soon, mind giving me a hand to get her ready to fly?"

[-]

The airship flew just above the treeline, speeding towards what was thought to be an abandoned warehouse north of Vale. David sat in the pilot seat while the others sat in the rear passenger hold. They'd been flying for ten minutes when David's voice crackled over the radio. "Alright, team 1 we are approaching your drop zone, prepare to jet on my mark."

Carly, Liz, Ruby and Weiss nodded and got up as the bay door opened, all of them crouching as the terrain rushed by below the open door.

"...3..."

"...2..."

"...1, mark!" David shouted over the radio, the four of them taking a running start and jumping out of the plane. Weiss using her glyphs to slow her decent to the forest floor while Ruby used Crescent Rose to swing around a tree in a downward spiral, Carly adopting a similar approach utilizing her dual blades. Liz whirled around in mid air, a purple whip extending and wrapping around a tree branch, allowing her to swing down to the forest floor, right into the middle of a White Fang patrol.

"Oh, hello boys." Liz stated coolly, cracking her whip as it started to glow, purple electricity beginning to arc down its length as the soldiers began raising their weapons. "You wouldn't happen to be looking for something to do..." She smiled, eyeing them one by one; "...would you?"

[-]

"Team 2, we're nearing your drop zone, get ready." David announced over the radio, Blake, Neo, and Yang stood up and in similar fashion prepared to exit. The airship slowed and came to a halt before turning about. Outside the door now lay the warehouse. Neo gathered her aura. "...go!"

And in a flash she teleported to the ground while Blake and Yang both jumped out of the airship, Neo wasted no time in bolting for the entrance. White Fang soldiers came around the corner and opened fire but were soon cut off by two small explosions, courtesy of Ember Celica. She kept moving, approaching the entrance and kicking through, she was greeted by more White Fang soldiers. She wasted no time in sending them to the floor

"Well, that was fun." Yang commented as she and Blake walked in behind Neo. She eyed some of the unconscious bodies on the floor, kicking one lightly to confirm said unconsciousness.

Blake pulled up a rough map on her scroll. "Alright, their likely holding Neo's mother in one of the cells down that hallway." She stated, pointing in the direction of the aforementioned hallway. "Yang, you and Neo head down and secure Neo's mother."

"And where are you going?" Yang questioned while Neo looked at her with a slightly arched eyebrow.

"I'm going to go towards the main command area, see if I can't dig up a little information on just what they've been up to."

[-]

David brought the airship down onto the roof of the warehouse, quickly grabbing his own weapon from a storage compartment and heading onto the roof. The long rifle glistened in the light as he kneeled down and took aim towards the forest. "Lets see...where are we..." he mumbled to himself, looking through the scope.

From what we could tell from his vantage point, Weiss and Ruby were handling things just fine, working in tandem to take out the patrol squads with stunning efficiency. Liz was likewise handling her portion of the squads well, albeit with the appearance of having a little to much fun. He found Carly just in time to see her go flying headfirst into a tree, slumping to the ground. Two large brutes wielding chainsaws moved towards her, clearly without her best interests in mind.

"I don't think so." David took aim and flipped a small dial on the side of his rifle before firing, sending two white dust rounds towards the attackers. Both rounds impacted their targets, freezing them solid. Now that that was taken care of, he tapped the radio in his ear. "Liz, hate to interrupt your fun but our leader could use a hand."

"Understood, and to think I was just getting started, oh well." Liz replied as screams could be heard in the background. David shook his head and watched as the purple whip wielder moved to her fallen leader.

"Ruby, Weiss, fall back to Liz's position and then all four of you make your way to the rendezvous point for pickup, clock is ticking people."

"Copy that." came the reply through his headset.

[-]

Carly felt someone shaking her shoulder as she blinked her eyes. "Carly! Can you hear me?" came a voice, the wolf faunus blinked and squinted at the person addressing her.

"Liz?" the faunus questioned, attempting to stand up. Liz reached and steadied her friend as she did so. "Wha...what happened?"

"You lost a fight with a tree and you would have lost the fight with these two Fangscicles if it hadn't been for David." Liz chuckled; "How you feeling?"

"Shaken, probably a little concussion, but nothing I can't walk off." Carly blinked again and looked at the two ice sculptures where her attackers had been. If he hadn't of acted she could have been in serious trouble. "I will have to thank him later."

Liz rolled her eyes with a slight smile as Ruby and Weiss jogged over. "Just heard from David, we need to get a move on to the warehouse." Ruby stated, stowing Crescent Rose as she did so.

"Good, hopefully that means we're almost done here." Carly stated, stretching her arms and rocking on her heels to test her balance. "Alright, lets move it, double time!"

[-]

Yang and Neo fought their way down the hallway, checking every room they came across, so far each one only led to either nothing or more White Fang soldiers. Yang punch one of the walls. "She's gotta be here somewhere!" she shouted, eyes red. Neo tapped on her shoulder, then pointed at a door at the end of the hall.

"What?...you think thats the one?"

Neo nodded, then began marching towards the door.

"It had better be." Yang grumbled as she followed the tri-color girl.

Neo reached for the door knob and slowly turned it, tensing up. She glanced back at Yang, who took up a fighting position and nodded. Turning her gaze ahead of her, she pulled and opened the door.

"Ladies! How nice of you to join us!"

**[A/N]**

** Things are finally getting exciting! I apologize if my combat scenes are a little weak, I'm trying my best. Anyway, remember to Rate, Review, and Follow!**

** -the17thScripter**


	6. Chapter 6: Suspicion

Chapter 6: Suspicion

**[A/N]**

** I don****'t own RWBY, it belongs to RoosterTeeth**

** -the17thScripter**

[-]

"Ladies! How nice of you to join us!"

Neo and Yang froze as the door opened fully, revealing Neo's mother, a video screen with Roman Torchwick's face, and several red dust explosives. Roman laughed; "Oh you should see the looks on your faces right now! Priceless! Well I hate that I can't be there in person to greet you, but you know I just hate it when conflicts blow up in my face." The man laughed at his own pun.

Yang cringed. "That's just fucked up." she swore both to the situation and the bad pun. Neo's mother sat slumped over in the chair, clearly unconscious. Neo continued to just stand in the entrance, eyes darting around the room as if looking for a solution.

"Well, as fun as this little chat is proving to be, I really must be going, lots of things to plan! Oh, and I'd say you've got…lets see…twenty seconds before things heat up? ta ta!" and with that the video feed cut off.

Yang blinked, as the video went out and a distinct beeping could be heard. Her eyes went wide in realization as the beeping began to pick up pace. "Neo! We have to…" Something grabbed her and pulled her into the room, then there was a flash of white light.

[-]

Blake crept stealthily down the hallway to her destination, Thankfully the ruckus that Yang and Neo were causing had most of the White Fang in that area, making things that much easier for her. Slowly twisting the handle on a door, she entered into what looked like a computer room. _Odd__…_ she thought to herself, _The White Fang aren__'__t usually ones for this level of technology__…__this has to be their influence on things._

She quickly and quietly searched the room, eventually finding a laptop sitting on a shelf. She grabbed the device and opened it. Quickly breaking in and viewing the data on the screen. Her eyes went wide. _This__…__this is_…

An explosion interrupted her thoughts. Her head snapped to the direction of the sound and her eyes widened. She shut the laptop and bolted out of the room, making for the nearest stairway, that did not sound good.

[-]

David staggered as the building shook beneath him. "Shit. That can't be good." He scrambled towards the craft but was temporarily blinded by a bright flash between him and the airship. "Wha…" His vision cleared to reveal three figures before him.

Yang, Neo, and who he could only assume was her mother, the tri color girl had her hands on the others and smiled before she collapsed. Yang blinked, apparently just as confused by their appearance as David. "That…was weird…"

"I'll bet, come on, lets get them loaded up, where's Blake?"

"Right here." Came the reply as the aforementioned girl came out of a nearby roof access. She jogged over, holding what looked like a laptop in her hand.

"Find anything?" Yang asked as they carried Neo and her mother into the airship.

"Perhaps, I'll need to go over the data to be sure." The faunus replied with a slight air of unease. The brawler was about to question further when they were cut off by a call over the radio.

"Team 2! Come in, we need evac now!" came Liz's voice atop of gunfire and shouting in the background.

"We're on our way, Team 1, what's the situation?" David responded from the cockpit, the airship's engines roaring to life, the craft beginning to ascend.

"Grimm!"

[-]

Carly slashed upwards, slicing through the Ursa before her before whirling around just in time to dodge an attack from two Beowolves. She jumped up and sliced down into a downward attack, one head per blade. "Liz! Where the hell are they?!" She shouted, jumping and whirling to dodge further attacks from the beasts in front of her.

Liz was nearby, her whip crackling with electricity as it whipped at the two Ursa she was dealing with. "They're on their way, shouldn't be much longer." She yelled back, cracking her whip again at the Ursae, she gritted her teeth, they hadn't been planning to deal with Grimm during this mission.

Ruby and Weiss were holding their own against another small back of Beowolves, Carly had to admit, based on the glimpses she got while fighting her own pair of Grimm, Crescent Rose was able to make impressively short work of its owner's opponents. A whirring over head drew everyone's attention for a moment as the airship hovered overhead, ropes dropping from the open passenger area.

"Come on!" Carly shouted, leaping to meet one of the ropes in mid air, "Lets get out of here!" The others followed suit, grabbing on and being pulled up and into the airship, which began flying away from the mess of White Fang and creatures of Grimm.

"I am so glad that's over." Weiss groaned as she slumped against the wall of the passenger bay, Ruby followed suit, voicing her own relief at the end of the events.

"What? Was that enough to tucker out the top team at Beacon?" Liz smirked, stowing her whip and turning to look at the Schnee heiress, who glared back in response.

"At least we got who we came for." Ruby said, all eyes turning to the two unconscious passengers on the floor.

[-]

Neo sat at her mother's bedside in the main medical building at Beacon, it had been a few days since the mission to recover her had occurred, and life seemed to finally be settling down. Hours of meetings and reports on all of the various aspects of what happened, how she teleported all three of them to safety just before Torchwick's bombs detonated, plus, as she quickly discovered, classes at Beacon Academy were both difficult and dull.

A knock on the door broke her train of thought, she looked up to see Liz standing there, offering up a smile. "Hey, how you doing?" The purple haired whip-wielder questioned, taking a step into the room.

_I__'__m alright, she hasn__'__t woken up yet, though the doctors say she should wake up soon._ Neo signed in response, shifting a little slightly in her chair.

"I'm sure she will." Liz smiled, moving closer and looking over the sleeping woman briefly. "You know…you're favorite blonde's getting antsy about you guy's rematch…not to belittle the situation or anything…but ehh…" She laughed a little nervously.

_I know, and I will fulfill her desire for a rematch, but not until Mom wakes up. _She replied, her eyes slowly looking up and down her mother's sleeping form. _And not a moment before__…_

[-]

"Dust experiments?" Carly blinked in disbelief. "Wait, so what kind of dust experiments?" night had long since fallen, and both her and Blake currently sat on the roof of their dorm, discussing the latter's findings from the mystery laptop she retrieved during the rescue mission.

"Its complicated and a lot of the data is still encrypted," Blake sighed, the moonlight reflecting briefly in her hair as she shook her head. "Something about infusions or genetic manipulation…its hard to tell, and still…it's unlike them."

"You think something like this is maybe the influence of whoever's running things?" The wolf faunus speculated, looking at the aforementioned data on her scroll.

"It is entirely possible, and that would make the recent dust robbery's make a little more sense, but there's simply not enough here to go on." Blake shut the laptop in question and stowed it in a bag. "For all I know this simply could've been somebody's pet project and is of no value."

"True, well keep digging and let me know if you find anything else out, might as well bring Ospin up to speed on all of this too."

"Will do…catch ya later." And with that, Blake was gone, supposedly leaving Carly alone in the darkness of the night.

"David, I know you're there."

[-]

"How could you let them survive, Roman?" A sultry feminine voice question, the orange haired criminal cowered a little at his boss' question.

"Well, you see it was just a simple error, won't happen again." The woman before him arched an eyebrow. She picked up a small feather from a nearby table, beginning to play with it in her hands.

"Are you sure? Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't security footage show one of them breaking in to the main server room and making off with a laptop?" The woman questioned, her eyes starting to glow fiery orange as she continued to play with the feather.

"Y-Yes, but there's no need for concern," Roman replied nervously; "the encryption on that laptop should be plenty to keep the little twerps out, so nothing to worry about!"

"You had better be right, Roman, I'd hate to think what would happen to you if our plans were discovered pre-maturely." The feather burst into flames, quickly disintegrating into a pile of ash in her hand before she gently blew it away.

Roman swallowed nervously, watching the small cloud of ash float away and disperse before quickly exiting his employer's presence.

[-]

David walked out from behind the air-conditioner he had been pretending to be a part of, "So I'm not a convincing HVAC unit?" He joked as he walked over to his team's leader.

"No, you're not, mind telling me what you're doing up here?" She asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Just wanted to say hi." The pilot put his hands up in defense. "Didn't realize you had other people who kept you company up here."

"Just some girl talk, nothing you need to worry about." She offered a smile, then walked over and stood in front of him. "You know, never really thanked you for what you did the other day." She admitted, the darkness hiding the feint blush that started to work its way onto her cheeks.

David shook his head. "Nothing to worry about, just doing my job to protect my teammates."

"Saving a girl's life is not what I'd call 'nothing to worry about'…you're to modest, David." Carly says softly, shifting her gaze at the ground for a moment. "You keep doing things like that, a girl could fall for you…"

"I doubt that…plenty of other options that are better than…mmph!" His lips were silenced by hers, the two stood there for what seemed like an eternity before finally breaking apart.

"So…dinner tomorrow night?" David asked, gazing into her eyes, unable to keep from smiling.

"I'd love to."

[-]

Liz watched as Neo lightly slept in the chair next to the hospital bed, the poor girl refused to leave her mother's side, it was a miracle she'd even eaten. A quick glance at the clock on the wall showed the time being about twenty minutes past midnight. She'd come in to check on the girl one last time before going to bed, hoping to convince her to come back to the room.

She walked over to the sleeping girl and gently shook her shoulder, Neo snapped her eyes open and quickly looked up. "Hey…" Liz started softly, "Come on…I know you want to be with her, but its half past midnight, you need to come back to the dorm and get cleaned up."

Neo slumped a little and sighed, she hated the idea of leaving, and she loosely signed this. Liz shook her head; "Look, I know, I know, but you're not doing anybody any favors by running yourself ragged, especially her." Liz motioned to the sleeping woman on the bed.

_Fine_, Neo signed, standing up and adjusting her shirt slightly. She took one last look at her mother before turning to follow her friend out of the room. They had made it to the doorway when a weak voice stopped them in their tracks.

"…Neo?"

**[A/N]**

** And so the story continues! Remember to Rate, Review, and Follow!**

** -the17thScripter**


	7. Chapter 7: Rematch

Chapter 7: Rematch

[A/N} I don't own RWBY, it belongs to RoosterTeeth

-The17thScripter

[-]

"…Neo?"

The two girls froze in their tracks, both slowly turning around to see Neo's mother, awake, and looking right at them. Neo rushed back to her mother's side, a tear beginning to make its way down her face.

_Mom?_ she signed slowly, Liz smiled as the older woman slowly nodded before practically getting tackled in a hug from her daughter. As the girl silently and slowly began to sob, the older woman put her arms around her.

"Shhh…it's okay, It's okay, I'm here…" The woman comforted, holding her daughter close. The woman's gaze turned to Liz. "And who might you be?"

"Name's Liz, your daughter and I are on the same team here at Beacon." She responds promptly, taking a few steps closer. "Its good to see you alright, Ms…?"

"Akemi, Akemi Politan."

[-]

"Its good to hear that she's awake." Carly commented as three of the members of team CNDL sat at the breakfast table. Liz nodded, taking a quick bite of her toast.

"Yeah, they spent two hours talking before Neo was 'convinced' to get some sleep." She finished off her piece toast and grabbed a glass of orange juice.

"Convinced?" David arched an eyebrow, taking a sip from his coffee.

"Convinced, was dragged, same difference." Liz shrugged; "She needs to be rested up for her match today with blondie."

"Today?!" Both faunus and pilot sputtered in surprise at the sudden revelation of the rematch. Liz looked at the two with an arched eyebrow;

"Uh, yeah. Did you guys miss the memo or something?"

"When, exactly, is the match going to be happening?" David asked, setting down his coffee mug to prevent any sudden spills.

Liz pondered for a moment. "Should be going down about mid-afternoon, two'o'clock I think."

"Where is she right now?" Carly asked, finishing off her breakfast quickly. The purple haired girl checked her watch.

"She should be sleeping right now, I'll go wake her up in a few hours to make sure she's good to go.

"You know Ooblecks gonna give you two an earful for missing his class again." The wolf faunus warned, picking up her tray and making to leave, her friends following suit.

"Yeah, yeah, tell me something I don't know."

[-]

Akemi had just finished dressing herself in a simple light silver dress when she heard someone knocking at her hospital room, she turned around to face the doorway. "Come in." She called in a light, almost singsong voice.

The door opened to reveal a man dressed in green with silver hair. "Ms. Politan, I hope I'm not intruding on anything." The woman shook her head.

"Not at all, you must be Professor Ozpin, its a pleasure to finally get a chance to meet you." She curtsied, "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I simply came by to check on how you were doing, the doctor's informed me that the pace of your recovery has been spectacular." The professor responded, taking a few steps into the room.

Akemi smiled. "Oh it was nothing really, Torchwick's goons just got a couple of lucky shots when I wasn't looking, nothing a bit of aura can't fix, though I assume this visit isn't entirely about my health."

"Perceptive," Ozpin nodded, "You'd be correct in that assumption, I do have several questions for you and your daughter, I'm assuming you are aware of her…previous employments."

"I am."

"Good, that's the kind of conversation that, as a teacher, I particularly dislike having." Ozpin moved to the room's window, which overlooked the main courtyard. "It seems people are beginning to gather for this afternoon's event."

"Oh?" The older woman moved to join him at the window. "What event would that be?"

"I do believe that your daughter and another student of mine are settling an old score." The professor commented, "Shall we go investigate?" Ozpin offered his arm, which she promptly hooked her own around.

"Lets."

[-]

Yang stood at one end of the sparring field, they had opted for an outdoor sparring match given Yang's explosive personality. At the other end of the field stood Neo, leaning slightly on her parasol, but otherwise looking calm. Yang checked over her own Ember Celica one last time, making sure it was fully deployed.

Neo watched her opponent check her weapon, choosing to ignore the gathering crowd. She glanced as their referees walked up in between them, Carly and Ruby, as respective team leaders, had agreed to ref the match.

"Ahem, Ladies and Gentleman, the match between Neo Politan and Yang Xiao Long is about to begin." Carly announced, silencing the gathered crowd.

Ruby continued; "The match will be tournament style, the first person's aura to drop into the red will be the loser." The two nodded too each other and stepped out of the ring.

"Fighters, get ready!"

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"Fight!"

[-]

Ozpin and Akemi watched as the blonde brawler took a running start to charge Neo. Yang raised her fist in an attempt at an attack, but missed as Neo sidestepped the attack, but oddly didn't make any attack of her own. Yang moved to attack again, a right cross, aimed for her face, but once again the attack never connected.

"I must say.." Ozpin began, his eyes fixed to the two combatants, "Your daughter seems to have opted for a more defensive strategy." Akemi nodded silently, eyes fixed on her daughter.

"Watch closely..." She began, looking intently; "Neo is increasing the delay between Xiao Long's attacks." _Just what are you planning on doing, my young daughter?_ She thought to herself. Suddenly it hit her, or rather, it hit Neo, and it was Yang Xiao Long.

[-]

Neo felt herself go flying as one of Yang's attacks finally hit, an uppercut to her jaw. She quickly twirled herself around mid air and managed to land on her feet. A flick of her wrist opened her parasol to block an incoming shot from Ember Celica, quickly closing it again to cut oner and place a quick kick of her own. The kick itself wasn't anything substantial, but the sudden offensive action threw the now glowing brawler off pace. It was time for an offensive.

She glanced briefly at her aura meter, which was now half full and yellow, she had to work quickly. Yang charged her again, swinging her left fist, aiming for another head shot. Neo channeled her own aura and surprised everyone, especially her attacker.

She caught Yang's fist.

[-]

The other three members of team RWBY watched dumbfounded as their teammate was suddenly sent flying over the tri-color girl's head, only for said girl to whirl around and land a kick to the blonde's side, sending Yang flying sideways into the ground.

"Did she just..." Weiss started.

"I think she did..." Blake continued

"Is that even possible?" Ruby blinked, she'd never seen anyone catch one of her sister's attacks like that, a block sure, but no one had ever 'caught' Yang like that. A quick check of the score board showed both combatants now in the yellow, though Yang still had a slight edge over Neo.

Blake looked over to the other members of team CNDL to see equally dumbfounded expressions, Liz's jaw in particular was hanging open. A gaze around the crowd reveled a similar pattern of surprise. Returning her gaze to the match, she watched as Yang stood up, her hair akin to fire, the two started circling around the ring, not taking their eyes off of the other.

[-]

Yang and Neo circled for what seemed like an eternity. With a shout Yang charged once more, concentrating on building her aura. Neo charged as well, surprising her slightly, but note completely. Neo jumped to kick again, bringing her heel down towards Yang's head, but Yang sidestepped, and swung with her left fist, channeling her aura into the punch.

For some, it was a sloppy attack, one that would have been easy to block or dodge.

For some, Neo could have easily shifted, or teleported away, or brought up her parasol, any number of things.

For Yang, she could have sworn Neo closed her eyes as the hit impacted her shoulder with enough force to send the girl flying once more. This time, however, Neo made no obvious attempts to recover, or land on her feet, or activate her semblance to teleport to some degree of safety. Her body hit the ground with a resounding thud as a buzzer sounded.

Her aura had dropped into the red, the match was over.

[-]

Liz ran to Neo's side as Carly and Ruby quickly called the match. "Neo! NEO! Are you okay?!" The whip wielder practically shouted as she quickly knelt down by her friend. The girl slowly nodded, motioning for Liz to help her up. As she sat up, she shook her head to clear it a little.

"Neo! Are you okay?" A second voice called as her mother, followed closely by Ozpin, approached.

_I__'__m good__…__just need to walk it off__…__help me up_ Neo signed, with concerned expression Liz and Akemi helped her up, she wobbled slightly after standing, but seemed to right herself after a moment. _Right, see? All good__…__lets go back to the room._ Neo turned to start walking, which she did.

She walked right into Liz.

"It would seem Ms. Politan's steering is a bit off."

[-]

Yang watched the Neo and her interactions from a distance. She narrowed her eyes, deep in though, oblivious to those standing around her.

"…Yang?" Blake waved her hand in front of her partners face, snapping her out of her daze.

"Hmmm? What?" The brawler looked to her friend, who eyed her in turn with concern.

"You okay? I know you just fought but you're spacing out." The faunus commented, looking Yang in the eye.

"Yeah…I'm fine…." The brawler replied, beginning to turn, but Blake could here the doubt in her voice.

"But?"

"I dunno…something doesn't quite sit right…"

[-]

Neo sat in the infirmary as one of the doctors looked her over and ran a few tests. "Well…" he started, looking at a larger scroll with some data on it. "Looks like its a mild concussion, nothing we can't treat in the usual away, however, even with your aura shielding, you've got a small hairline fracture in your shoulder, which will take some time to heal properly."

Neo nodded, Liz translating as she signed. _Alright, am I free to go?_

The doctor glanced back at his scroll. "Well, normally with concussion cases we'd hold you for observation for a few more hours at least…but from the looks of things you'll be alright, just contact us if you notice anything unusual."

Neo nodded once more, and it wasn't long before they were both standing in front of the infirmary. "So…you hungry? There's this ice cream place nearby…" Liz started, quickly glancing at her watch. "Should still be open."

_That sounds like fun, I could use the distraction, _Neo smiled as she signed.

[-]

**[A/N]**

** A tad shorter than the past two, but I think it still flows pretty well. Anyway, remember to Review, Rate, Favorite, Follow, etc**

** -The17thScripter**


	8. Chapter 8: Descent into Darkness

Chapter 8: Descent Into Darkness

[A/N]

I do not own RWBY, it belongs to RoosterTeeth.

-the17thScripter

[-]

Neo and Liz stood outside of one of the many ice cream shops in Vale, both girls slowly licking away at their respective cones. The sun was beginning to set on the horizon and the streets where beginning to empty, leaving the two mostly to themselves. Liz glanced at her watch; "Hmm...those two should be heading out soon."

_What?_ Neo signed inquisitively, looking to her friend. Liz giggled, a very mischievous smile spreading across her face.

"Come on, lets go watch the lovebirds on their little date!" She said, beginning to walk off in a certain direction. Confused, Neo hastily followed, what could Liz have meant by 'lovebirds'?

[-]

Carly and David walked up to a rather classy restaurant in downtown Vale, Carly wore a simple green dress with a black jacket while David had donned a simple but respectable black suit. "uhm...David...this place looks...pricey."

David chuckled softly "Its actually not that bad, plus the foods good, relax." He smiled at her as he took her hand. "It's not a problem." She nodded, feeling her face heat up a little as he led her inside.

"Good evening." A tall man, dressed in almost entirely black tuxedo addressed them as they entered, his red eyes seeming to twinkle. "Might I interest my lord and lady in a table for two this evening?" He asked, a deep accent ringing in his voice.

"Yes, and we'd prefer balcony seating if possible, seeing as the weather is nice." David replied.

"Of course m'lord, right this way."

Still holding hands, the two followed the man until they were both seated on the restaurant's balcony, which overlooked the water and the waining sunset. "Wow..." Carly commented, amazed by the view.

The waiter offered a small smile. "Our special this evening is the filet mignon with mashed potatoes which have a light garlic flavoring and your choice of either green beans or broccoli, both freshly steamed to perfection."

David nodded; "Honestly that sounds good to me, you?" he looked to the wolf faunus, who nodded in agreement.

"Excellent, and which of the vegetables would you prefer?"

"I'll take the broccoli" David replied.

Carly thought to herself for a moment. "I suppose the green beans will do."

"Of course, I shall inform the chef right away and return shortly with ice water and fresh baked breadsticks." And almost in a flash, the man was gone, leaving the two to enjoy their evening while their food was being prepped.

[-]

Akemi walked alone through the school grounds, watching as the sky shifted to the dark blue of night. Despite the calm of the school grounds, her mind was anything but calm as she walked. Footsteps from behind her caught her attention as she turned to see a man, dressed in green. "Mind if I join you?"

"Ozpin." The woman smiled softly. "Not at all, I appreciate the company."

"Glad to hear it, I trust you are settling in alright?" The man asked as they walked together through the school's main courtyard.

"Alright enough I suppose, your teacher's apartments are functional, and given how you won't let me pay I have nothing to complain about." Ozpin chuckled, but he was nothing if not observant.

"Something still seems to trouble you, if I may, anything I can perhaps help with?"

"Just recent events, the match earlier, the events leading to me being here...something still seems so off." The woman replied, her brow furrowed.

"How so?"

"Well, take today's match between my daughter and Ms. Xiao Long…I shall be blunt, I've seen my daughter fight enough to know when she pulls her punches."

The professor widened his eyes a little; "Ms. Politan lost the match on purpose? I suppose that does explain the apparent briefness of the match."

A nod confirmed his inquiry, causing him to ponder; "Why would she have done such a thing, I wonder?"

[-]

Liz and Neo lay on their stomachs from a nearby rooftop, watching the two on the balcony below. Neo mentally groaned, spying on their teammates hadn't exactly been what she had in mind. Liz had a pair of binoculars with her, which she was currently utilizing with the aforementioned spying.

"Lets see...looks like, some sort of steak maybe?" Liz commented quietly as they "Ooh! Wine! Wait...aren't they a little underage for that kind of thing?"

_Perhaps its alcohol-free?_ Neo signed, not that it mattered, Liz couldn't see her. Pouting, Neo poked at the girls side.

"Ow!...wh..." Liz turned to look at the girl, and noticed the pout. "Neo? What's wrong?"

_I dunno...its just...why did we come all the way out here to spy on them? They're just on a date..._ Neo continued pouting, slowly looking out over the water; _not that special..._

"Not that special?" Liz studied the tri-golor girl, then her face lit up with a slightly mischievous grin. "You're jealous..aren't you?"

_W-What?!_ Neo lit up like a tomato, her hands shaking; _I am not!_

"I knew it! You're totally jealous!"

"Ahem." The two girls froze mid argument, both slowly turning their heads towards the direction of the unknown voice. Standing behind them was a man, dressed in a black tuxedo with red eyes. His slight grin and aura caused both of them to start trembling. "My my, you know it is impolite to spy on people."

The two girls ran, leaving nothing but smoke cloud clones in their place.

[-]

The room was dark, illuminated only be the glow of a few computer screens. A woman, dressed in a dark crimson dress, sat in her chair, her eyes glancing over the various screens in front of her. Various diagrams and schematics relating to what would appear to be DNA flashed before her.

A phone rang on her desk, buzzing for a moment before she picked it up. "Yes?...I see...so they are ready then? ... excellent, begin preparations at once...wipe them out, all of them." And with that, she closed the phone.

She tapped on the keyboard, the screens rapidly changing to a map with various locations marked on it. She chuckled quietly to herself as her plans were set in motion.

"Soon...soon shall begin your fall..."

[-]

"Have my lord or my lady saved room for desert?" The waiter asked as he came to retrieve the now finished plates from the couple.

David waved his hand, patting his stomach with the other. "I'm afraid not..."

"Of course, sir." The waiter collected the plates; "Though our featured desert this evening is a chocolate raspberry cheesecake, if at all would interest you."

David looked to see Carly with an almost pleading expression on her face at the mention of the desert and its chocolate nature.

"Well...I suppose one slice wouldn't hurt."

"Right away, m'lord."

[-]

Yang sat on her bed, the rest of team had settled down or gone out for the evening, leaving her to her thoughts. The match still bugged her...something just seemed off...hell the past few days had seemed off to her. The last moments before her victory replayed in her mind, over and over. "Hey..." came a soft femine voice, Yang shook her head and looked to the owner of that voice.

"Oh...Ice Queen...hey..."

"Are you..um..." The heiress went quiet for a moment. "…are you okay? You haven't been acting like your brutish self since the match this afternoon." She paused and sat down next to the brawler. "We're all kinda worried."

"I dunno…its weird, I thought that by beating her I'd feel better about the whole thing...but I don't." Yang sighed. "And then there's that last hit, I've looked at the footage over and over again from the arena camera's...that last hit, she had every opportunity either to dodge or block or whatever...its like she let it hit."

Weiss pondered for a moment. "Perhaps its her way of saying sorry?"

"Huh?"

"Well, look at it this way...she tried to kill you once..." The heiress paused for a moment, looking directly at Yang. "So as a way of atoning for it, she lets you pummel her to a pulp like that in a single hit. Yang, when you're pissed your not the most reasonable or approachable person, and she has to have been going here long enough to know that...so maybe it was her way of saying sorry in the only way that could have any sort of meaning to you?"

Yang pondered this for a moment, she didn't like it when her opponents pulled their punches...but then again, Weiss's point made sense. "Maybe...I guess I'll talk with her tomorrow if I get the chance."

Weiss nodded and stood up, she was about to go into their room's bathroom to clean up for the night when she noticed something. Walking to the window, she peered out. "Hmmm...that's odd..."

"What is?" Yang asked, getting up to join her teammate.

"Airship's don't usually come in from that direction this time of night."

[-]

"Now that..." David said as the two walked out of the restaurant; "was a good meal." Carly nodded, leaning against his shoulder as they walked, her arm hooked around his.

"So, where to now?" The wolf faunus asked as they walked.

"Well, I was thinking of watching the stars by the pier?"

Carly looked up at him with a smile and a slight blush; "That sounds nice."

The two headed towards the pier and arrived, Carly continued to lean against him as the two stood their, watching as the remaining sunlight dwindled down completely, leaving the moon and stars as the only occupants of the sky. Carly sighed contentedly. "Thank you...for tonight..." she started, looking right into his eyes. "I can't remember the last time I've genuinely had this much fun."

David smiled; "I'm happy to oblige, I'm glad I got the chance to spend it with you." Carly smiled and slowly wrapped her arms around him, pulling him closer until their lips met in a tender kiss. He slowly wrapped his arms around her, holding her close as they embraced.

There was a crash behind them, causing the moment to end abruptly as the two whirled around to find a certain purple haired whip wielder face first on the ground. She quickly scrambled up right and nervously laughed. "H-Hey! Fancy running into you two here!"

[-]

Liz and Neo sat silently as their team leader glared and scolded them. "...I can't believe you two would stoop to such levels as spying on my private life! Have either of you any decency!?" She practically yelled, they hadn't left the pier yet but any romantic moments were long gone. "Honestly...do I even want to know how long you two have been spying on us?"

_Past few hours_ Neo signed which David translated, much to Liz's chagrin.

"Thats it, we are heading back to Beacon, both of you, fifty laps around the training track." The faunus ordered.

"What?!" Liz whined; "Now?! But its 10 at night! We have classes in the morning!"

"Should have thought about that before, now march!" Carly barked, pointing in the direction of the school. Liz and Neo did just that, not wanting to upset their leader any further, though not without further grumbling from Liz.

David rested a hand on Carly's shoulder as they walked; "Hey...go easy on them, they were just being curious."

Carly sighed; "I know...I just don't like being spied on...Liz of all people should have known bett.."

Something bright orange whistled and soared above them, disappearing before being followed by a loud rumble in the distance, causing all four of them to freeze in their tracks. "What was...HOLY FUCK! CARLY!" Liz shouted from ahead of them, pointing towards something. Carly saw it, and with an order they all broke out into full sprint as airships began swarming in overhead, airships marked with the emblem of the White Fang.

That something Liz had pointed to was Beacon Academy.

And Beacon was burning.

**[A/N]**

** And it was going so well until it exploded...Remember to Rate, Follow, Review, and Favorite!**

** -the17thScripter**


	9. Chapter 9: The Battle for Beacon

Chapter 9: The Battle For Beacon

[A/N]

I don't own RWBY, it belongs to RoosterTeeth.

-the17thScripter

[-]

"Airships don't usually come in from that direction this time of night." Weiss commented, pointing out the window at an approaching Airship. Yang stood next to her teammate and peered at the craft.

"Hmm...yeah your right, traffic should mainly be coming from Vale...but that's...from...the south..." Yang's eyes went wide and she dashed to her dresser, immediately beginning to search through the drawers.

Weiss watched, now confused. "What? What is it?" she asked as Yang produced a pair of binoculars.

The brawler rushed back to the window, focusing the binoculars on the approaching airship. "...Shit! Its the White Fang...and that's not the only one, we have to warn..." she was cut off as something bright orange whistled and streaked across the sky towards the school. "GET DOWN!" she screamed, grabbing Weiss by the shoulder as and half dragging, half throwing her to the floor.

There was a bright flash, followed by an ear piercing explosion, then darkness.

[-]

Team CNDL dashed towards the school aboard David's aircraft, thankful for having picked the aircraft as their mode of transformation for the evening. All four of them were now in their spare combat gear. "All right!" Carly yelled as they approached. "Liz, Neo! You're going to drop at the Courtyard, try and hold the line, David and I will secure the hangar."

Liz and Neo nodded as Carly continued; "I have no idea what you might see down there, rally who you can..."

"Carly..." David called from the cockpit, "You might want to get up here and see this." The wolf faunus nodded at her teammates before scrambling up to the cockpit.

She looked over the school grounds, or rather what was left of the grounds. "Dear Oum almighty..." she gasped. The grounds had been utterly mutilated in the opening volley, fires raged all over the grounds as White Fang soldiers began to charge, many of the main buildings where now burning as well, walls starting to crumble.

"Over there, look!" The soldiers were meeting resistance, many students had scrambled and were engaging the enemy head on in the main courtyard. In particular, a familiar red scythe and black katana swung in unison against the opposing forces, though they were quickly growing out numbered. "Get us over there, that'll be the drop point." Carly ordered, grabbing her radio. "Liz, Neo, prepare to drop!"

[-]

Ruby and Blake fought back to back as the White Fang closed in around them. "They just keep coming!" Blake shouted as Gimbal Shroud flew around on its ribbon, firing into the enemy.

The scythe-wielder was busy firing her own weapon, furrowing her brow as each one seemed to take more and more effort to knock out. Something was off with these soldiers, they didn't look like anything she had ever seen before, and their apparent stamina concerned her greatly. The sound of an approaching jet drew a side glance as a familiar craft flew overhead, leaving two figures flying towards them.

Ruby turned her attention back to her fighting just in time to see one of the soldiers charge her, there was a flash of white, a parasol, and the soldier went flying. "Need a hand?" A familiar whip wielder called out as her whip came to life, arcing with electricity as it snapped at the enemy, temporarily illuminating their skeletons.

"You're just in time, any idea what caused this attack?" Blake shouted, firing a few more rounds before switching Gambol Shroud and its sheath to the dual blade mode.

Liz shook her head, wrapping her whip around a nearby soldier, sending dust enhanced electricity throughout his body. "No idea! We were down in Vale when it started….where's the rest of your team?!"

"Yang and Weiss were in the dorm when the attack hit!" Ruby cried as she dodged an attack, quickly sending another group of soldiers flying. "We haven't heard anything from them."

[-]

Weiss coughed and sputtered as she awoke to heavy smoke in the air, her head pounding. It was hot, very hot. She quickly looked around the room to analyze her surroundings, finding one of support beams from the ceiling crashed into the floor, leaving their room in shambles. Weiss coughed again, squinting; "Y-Yang? Yang!" the heiress called, slowly getting up. It was hard to see much else through the smoke, and the lack of oxygen was making her dizzy.

But even in smoke, bright blonde hair still stands out. "Yang! YANG!" She fell down to her hands and knees and crawled over to the brawler, who was currently trapped under one of the fallen bunk beds and the support beam, unconscious. "Yang! Can you hear me?!" Weiss shook the brawler, anything to get her response, tears beginning to stream when none came. "No! No no no NO NO!" Weiss cried.

Weiss heard more crashing and small explosions, and the door to their room bust open, drawing her attention. She couldn't make out who the figure was in the smoke, but they rushed to her side. "...Neo! Yang..she's trapped...she won't wake up...she..." Neo grabbed her shoulder and laid her hand on Yang. A flash of white light, and all three were gone, just as the building collapsed.

The trio materialized in one of the school's sparring arenas, such a distance leaving Neo to stumble and fall from the disorientation. Weiss quickly checked on Yang, something that was much easier to do now without a burning building surrounding them. "…She's not breathing!" Weiss screamed as she looked to Neo, who was still recovering from the teleport and barely able to be much of a help for the moment. "Of all the…I am never gonna here the end of this…"

[-]

Yang couldn't figure out what was going on, but it felt like someone was pounding on her chest, squeezing her against the ground. Then every so often there was something warm yet pleasant at her lips, pushing air into her, causing her to gasp and then cough. "…Yang? Can you hear me?" A somewhat familiar voice calling her.

"Five more minutes, Mom." She groaned before feeling herself wrapped up in a hug, white hair filling her somewhat blurry vision.

"Yang Xiao Long don't you ever do that to me again!" Weiss cried as she hugged her teammate.

The blonde managed a chuckled between coughs. "Awww…Ice Queen, you care!"

"Of course I care you brute!"

Yang chuckled a bit more, looking around to see Neo watching them, silently laughing. "Yeah yeah…now if you could get off my legs Snow Angel and help me up…"

"Um, Yang?" Weiss asked, Neo suddenly flashing to a concerned expression.

"What?"

"I'm…not…on your legs…" The heiress responded, her own look of worry mimicking Neo's.

"Then why can't I feel them?" The brawler asked, letting out a nervous laugh.

Weiss and Neo exchanged glances; "W-well…when Neo pulled us out of the dorm…" The heiress began; "You had gotten stuck under a bed and some sort of steel support beam…about half of you wasn't visible…"

"….Well fuck."

[-]

Akemi's clothes glowed a light purple as she and Professor Ozpin battled in front of the medical building. Millions of glowing dust particles flew in streams as she dealt with wave after wave of the Soldiers. Ozpin's own weapon sang through the night, cutting down his own fair share of the enemy.

"You know, Ozpin, for a walk in the park, the hordes of soldiers aren't what I'd call romantic." The older woman commented as she worked her dust magic.

"I agree…" Ozpin furrowed his brow, while he still maintained a calm persona as he dealt with the attackers, he spared no mercy to those would dare to hurt his students in such a manner.

A loud crash drew their attention for a brief moment, long enough for them to watch the main dorm building collapse in on itself. "Oum…I hope nobody was in there…" Akemi breathed watching flames lick away at the remaining rubble of the dormitory.

Ozpin scowled, his aura dark and expanding. Lives that he had been charge with training and protecting had just been lost, whoever was responsible for this attack would not go unpunished. However, their attention was drawn back to the battlefield as the soldiers began to part, and a lone woman with glowing orange eyes and a flowing red dress approached them.

[-]

"Yang's what?!" Ruby shouted into her scroll's headset. The group of them had managed to gain the upper hand in the main courtyard, which now resembled a war torn battlefield.

Weiss's voice echoed over the comm "From what we can tell, she's paralyzed from the waste down, but we don't know for sure…she can't feel anything, and she's conscious…"

"Hmmm…" Carly's voice also echoed in; "Sit tight, and keep your guard up. Ruby, how are things at the courtyard going?"

"Good as they can I guess…With Liz and Team JNPR's help we've pushed them back…some of the other students aren't moving though…" The scythe-wielder responded, there was silence for a few moments. "How are things on your guy's end?"

"David, Team CFVY, and Myself have secured the Hangar with thankfully little trouble…David and I are going to head over and assist the battle in front of the Medical Center."

"Copy that, we'll join you if we can." came Blake's voice. "Over and out."

"So…Yang's paralyzed?" Ruby asked the faunus, worry threatening to become a permanent feature of her facial expression.

"At least she's alive…" Blake responded solemnly, something she couldn't say for many of the students who now lay still.

[-]

Carly and David ran full sprint towards the Medical Center, both breathing heavily with weapons drawn. "David, break off, get up top and provide cover fire!" The leader barked, her own swords drawn as they approached the battle. David nodded and bolted off to the side, quickly scaling one of the nearby buildings and settling in on the roof, leaving him to survey the battle.

Neo's mother, from what he could tell, seemed to be handling her own against the attackers while Ozpin and some unidentified woman were locked in combat. Carly was already cutting her way towards Ozpin, cutting her own path through the chaos. He turned his scope back towards Ozpin and the woman in red. His eyes widened, reaching up and tapped the radio in his ear, "Carly!"

"Go ahead." her voice buzzed over the radio, a few static screams in the background.

"Get to Ozpin, That woman he's fighting fits the profile Neo gave us. Get her away from the Professor, I have a plan."

[-]

_"__So this Cinder chick is the leader of the White Fang?__" __Liz asked as they sat in the in infirmary, the four members of team CNDL had gathered to check on their comrade, who currently sat on the examination table._

_ Neo nodded, signing a complete description, followed by a request to take the information to Ozpin. "Neo, nothing you've told us explains why you were kicked out of the White Fang, from the sound of things you were actually pretty high up..." Carly commented as she leaned against the wall next to David._

_ Neo's gaze fell to the floor, that was a long story, a very long story indeed._

[-]

Cinder and Ozpin clashed once again, the woman's clothing continuously glowing a fiery orange as her magic clashed with the professor's weapon. "Why, why attack this school? What have you to be gained?" Ozpin shouted, bringing his sword and aura down upon the woman's magic.

The woman laughed, deflecting the man's attack with apparent ease. "And continue to let your precious student's meddle in my affairs?" She charged another attack, dust crystals gathering around her in a ring. "I think not."

The dust crystals formed into a spear and rocketed towards the Professor, who lifted his sword to defend himself. In that instant, something moved in front of him and seemed to absorb the attack. He blinked to see a certain wolf faunus standing between them, teetering a bit as arcs of energy traced up and down her body.

"Professor, stand back." Carly calmly stated, drawing her two swords and turning to face the woman. "She's mine."

**[A/N]**

** Whew, that was fun, and its not over yet! Stay tuned for a Part II next week! Remember to follow, favorite, and review!**

** -The17thScripter**


	10. Chapter 10: A Candle's Light

Chapter 10: A Candle's Light

[A/N] I don't own RWBY, it belongs to Roosterteeth

-The17thScripter

[-]

Carly mentally cringed as the energy from Cinder's attack coursed through her. While she wasn't a stranger to this sensation, she'd never taken a hit of this magnitude before. "She's mine..." Carly dropped into a fighting stance, both of her blades drawn.

The woman before her laughed; "I'm impressed, but do you have any idea what position you are now in, little girl?" Cinder chuckled again, her eyes still glowing a vibrant orange as he clothes lit up once more. Carly kept her eyes trained on her opponent, slowly beginning to step to the right, hoping Cinder would take the bait.

Cinder stepped to the left, slowly the two began to circle, like wolves growling at each other in a duel. In a flash, Cinder lashed out, releasing a torrent of flames and dust shards at her opponent. The young wolf faunus dodged, rolling to the side and letting the attack vent harmlessly behind her. She couldn't attack, not yet, her semblance was still processing all of the energy from the previous attack.

She needed to buy time, time for David to get setup with whatever it was he was planning, for the others to continue their efforts in fending off the attacking White Fang.

Time she wasn't sure she had.

[-]

'_Basically, I outlived my usefulness...' Neo signed as she sat on the edge of the examination table. 'Multiple failures were blamed on me, failure to terminate team RWBY aboard the train, failure to keep Torchwick safe...the list goes on.'_

_ 'And Cinder, her bad side is not one you want to be on. She only let me in based on my combat skill, that and Torchwick needed a body guard.' Neo sighed; 'She doesn't tolerate failure, I am lucky I escaped or I likely would have been executed..._

[-]

Liz cracked her whip just centimeters in front of the man cowering at her feet, the purple weapon laced with dust crackled with the aura of its owner. "So...I'd really like to know why you people attacked our school, you can answer that question, right?" She cooed, kneeling down to be at eye level with the man. "I mean...I'd hate to think about what would happen if you couldn't, you know?" She let out a soft but venomous chuckle, the man's eyes went wide, darting back and forth between her and her whip, which she cracked against the ground one more time, singing the dirt beneath it.

"Okay! Okay! I'll talk! I'll talk!" He half pleaded, half screamed. "We were ordered to, something about you people constantly interfering with our plans! S-s-something about sending a message, not to be trifled with anymore a-and a test!"

"There, was that so hard?" She cooed, "Now this test you mentioned, whats that all about?" Liz cracked her whip once more, dangerously close to the man's right leg, earning a shriek.

"I don't know! I swear to Oum I don't know! They don't tell us stuff like that!"

"I suppose a lower rank soldier like you wouldn't know too much." Liz sighed rising from her kneeling position. "Such a shame..." She turned to walk away, seeming to be done with the man.

The man started to let out a small sigh. "But you know...you and your buddies have _killed_ a lot of my friends and fellow students tonight..." His sigh hitched in his throat as he heard a crack and felt something wrap around his neck.

As energy arced through his body, he screamed until his world went dark. His body fell back and hit the dirt with a dull thud as Liz retracted her whip; his mouth agape and eyes wide in silent terror.

"You have any idea what that does to a girl?"

[-]

David watched through his rifle scope at the two combatants on the other edge of the field. With each of Cinder's attacks, the young wolf faunus seemed to pick up speed, but at the pace the two were fighting, he couldn't take his shot, not yet. "Come on, Carly..." He muttered, zeroing in and flicking a switch on the side of his rifle.

With a slight hissing noise the barrel split into four pieces, separating at the end. David began channeling his aura into the rifle, causing a spike of energy to form at the end of the barrel.

Everything went into slow motion, Carly attacked with both of her blades. The force of her attack knocking her opponent back a few yards.

A few yards was all he needed to pull the trigger, sending the spike of white energy hurtling towards its target.

[-]

_Neo and Liz walked along the board walk towards the ice cream shop in Vale, Liz humming a pleasant melody quietly to herself. The melody stopped, however, when they got close to the small shop. The shop was nestled between two larger stores and had a quaint and retro look to it, said shop also had a rather large line coming from its entrance as well. "Ah...shit..." Liz breathed, turning to look at her companion. "You mind waiting this long?"_

_ 'No wait is to long for ice cream.' Neo signed in reply, adding a sage like bow of her head for effect. Liz chuckled at her friend's actions, a slight smile crossing her face for a moment._

_ "Say...Neo, I know its kind of personal, but...if you don't mind me asking, what happened to your voice?" Liz paused, trying to gauge a reaction of the girl. "I mean, if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine and all..." Liz nervously chuckled._

_ Neo shook her head, 'No no, its fine, it happened when I was very young...I barely remember it...'_

[-]

Carly watched as the bolt of energy tore through Cinder's shoulder, sending the woman's left arm flying and leaving a glowing hole in her opponent. The woman screamed and fell to the ground. The young wolf faunus slowly approached, something seemed off, very off. The blood that was seeping out of the wound and the now detached arm was...black? And the arm started to disintegrate in a cloud of dust and ash, just like... Carly's eyes widened.

Cinder started chuckling, which slowly developed into a maniacal cackle as she lay on the ground. "You think you've won...haven't you?" The fallen woman laughed and coughed up more of the black blood. "No...no this...is just beginning..." and with those final words, the woman's aura started to build, quickly.

Carly's eyes widened and she quickly turned to run before feeling the heat of an explosion at her back, rapidly thrusting her forward and into the ground. The last thing she heard was someone shouting her name, then all went dark.

[-]

Weiss looked around what was left of the school grounds as the sun started to rise over the mountain tops. It had been hours since the attack by the White Fang, and the Atlesian military had shown up and dealt with the remaining attacking forces. With the heat of battle over, the weight of damage and loss had started to settle in on everyone.

The heiress looked and felt like a mess, sleep had not come to her in the hours since the attack. The combat skirt she proudly wore, once white and clean, now was a tattered bloody mess covered with various patches of soot and ash. And there she stood, in front of what was once the entrance to their dormitory, now a pile of smoking rubble with white blankets laid out in various places...she'd made the mistake of looking under one of those blankets and had promptly purged her stomach because of it.

"Hey..." A voice snapped her out of her thoughts, causing her to turn around. "You okay?"

"Ruby..." The heiress started as the girl in red approached her. "I...no...no I'm not 'okay', none of it! none of its okay!" Weiss felt the girl wrap her arms around her in a hug as the heiress broke down into tears.

[-]

Blake sat in the cafeteria, one of the few buildings to have survived the attack. The soup bowl before her long since empty, she sat, reading one of the few books she had managed to save from the dorm. Reading was her escape...she needed to not think about what had happened for a while.

Something banged into her table, snapping her back to reality. "Fuck..." She looked over to see her blonde haired partner bang into the table with her wheel chair. "These things are harder to control then they look." Yang complained, setting her now messy food tray on the table.

"I've noticed..." Blake replied cooly, closing her book and looking over her partner; "So...you get looked at by the doctors yet?"

Yang sighed, breaking off a piece of bread and dunking it in her soup. "Yeah...it ain't pretty, even with my aura doing healing work...it'll be a few months before I can move my legs again..." The brawler shrugged, swallowing a mouthful. "But hey, at least its not permeant...I hope."

"You hope?" Blake raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

"Well...there _is_ a small chance that they won't heal properly and I'll have to come up with some clever new ways of...well everything..."

"How small a chance?"

"Eh...Fifty-fifty?"

"Yang! That's not a small chance." Blake scowled; "And how are you even here? Aren't you supposed to be in the medical center?"

"Pfft...Like I was gonna lay in a bed all day while you and the others were out here." The brawler replied after draining the rest of her soup. Her expression turned serious, "With what happened...everyone's grieving, that's not something that should be done the alone." She set her soup bowl down, looking out one of the nearby windows. "I learned that a long time ago."

[-]

Ozpin sat at a round table inside one of the many tents that had been set up, on either side of him were Glynda and Akemi, while Ironwood and other leaders sat around the table. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the council...what has transpired here today is horrific beyond any description." The professor started, sipping from his mug; "But let me clear when I say that we will rebuild, become stronger and not let this set us back or hinder our efforts to produce the finest huntsmen and huntresses...as for the students and faculty whose lives were lost in the attack...I will see to the notification of their families, personally."

General Ironwood sighed; "Oz...we need to retaliate, they can't be allowed to get away with this."

"And we will." The man replied, taking another sip of his mug; "But, if we retaliate with an all out attack, similar to what they did to us, causing yet more bloodshed...we are no better than they, and we would dishonor the memories of those who have perished." Ozpin set his mug down on the table, folding his hands together. "Now...as for the matter of the continued education for the remaining students."

[-]

David sat his workbench like he often did, his rifle laying before him in pieces as he cleaned it. A lone candle burned off to the side, providing a small amount of light. Power had yet to be restored to the hangars since the attack, but David didn't mind...the flickering light of the small flame was soothing in a way.

"I had a feeling you'd be here." A feminine voice called from behind him, earning a small smile from the man.

"Well...with all that's happened, its a good place to just sit and process it all, you know?" He replied as he turned to address the newcomer. "You know, for a dead girl, you sure are mobile." He teased, his face forming a light smile.

"Oh please," The young wolf faunus replied, "I was out for a half hour tops, and I wake up to find you balling like a baby."

David chuckled; "How you feeling?"

"A little singed, but nothing that won't grow back on its own..." She replied, walking up to him. "The others are all headed for the Cafeteria, some sort of announcement or something, you coming?"

David nodded, quickly re-assembling his rifle. "Yeah, give me a sec." Slinging the re-assembled rifle over his shoulder, he stood up and grabbed her by the hand. "Come on, lets go see what's in store." He smiled, leaning over and blowing out the candle.

[-]

**[A/N]**

** A fitting end to this story arc I think, The next chapter will actually be an epilogue of sorts. WIth Volume 3 around the corner I want to wait to continue this until I see what new content and settings I have to work with. Until then, I have some other writings I'll be posting so stay tuned for those, as for this, we are far from done with the adventures of team CNDL. Stay Tuned for Part 2: A Candle Consumed!**

** -The17thScripter**


	11. Epilogue for Part 1

Epilogue: A Candle, a Ruby, and a Juniper Tree.

[A/N] Here it is, the epilogue, as always I don't own RWBY, it belongs to Roosterteeth

-The17thScripter

[-]

_ Dear Mother,_

_ These past two months since the attack on Beacon have been...rough. My team, as well as teams RWBY and JNPR have been shipped off to the academy in Atlas to continue our training while Beacon is rebuilt. All of the surviving students for that matter have been temporarily placed in various schools around the world. _

_ Surviving students...heh, that's what we are now, at least as far as the news is concerned. Survivors. Its actually kind of annoying, I won't downplay what happened, but the constant pitying is getting annoying. And the White Fang has been unusually quiet, I don't like it. Where did they even get that many soldiers? And I am not convinced Cinder's dead...but I guess we can talk about that when I come home for the holidays._

_ Speaking of which...David and I are officially an 'item' now and Liz won't shut up about it. I'm happy though, and I was thinking of maybe bringing him home for the holidays? Maybe with Neo and Liz as well...just, if he does come home with me, promise me you'll go easy on him with the whole 'I am a wise wolf and I will judge you based on your character' thing? Hey, maybe Dad will be home to...we could be a big family for Christmas, wouldn't that be great! Anyway, I've got to get going, I've got an advanced Grimm Studies course soon. I love you!_

_ Your Daughter,_

_ Carly_

_P.S_

_ I mean't it with the whole 'I am a Wise Wolf' thing, Mom._

[-]

Carly hit send and closed the small computer before her on the desk, sliding it into her bag along with the textbooks she needed for the class. Adjusting her new uniform, she slung the bag over her shoulder and walked out of the utilitarian room. As she walked along the corridor among the hundreds of other students, her gaze drifted upwards to look at the sky, which seemed to be surrounded by towering sky scrapers and air-traffic. "Its not over yet, not by a long shot."


End file.
